Introduction

The increasing interest in creativity, particularly organizational creativity, is no longer in doubt, from both an academic and managerial point of view. Indeed, a good number of special issues of scientific journals have been dedicated to this subject in recent years (DeFillippi et al. 2007; Parmentier et al. 2017; Hjorth et al. 2018), and the research agenda is keeping pace. From the perspective of organizations, creativity is, according to the Observatoire de la créativité (2020), one of the most potent drivers of employee commitment and innovation. Furthermore, an increasing number of creativity programs are emerging and firmly establishing themselves within organizations. We can look at the example of participative innovation programs implemented by companies of various sizes and sectors, whether open (Lego Ideas, Brandstorm L’Oréal, etc.) or restricted to company employees (Léonard (SNCF), Créativ’Café (Schmidt Groupe), etc.). Whether studied or implemented at an individual, collective or organizational level (Amabile 1988), creativity has much to teach us. For instance, we understand how to define organizational creativity and distinguish different levels of analysis (Woodman et al. 1993), what factors encourage its emergence (Andriopoulos 2001; Isaksen and Ekvall 2007) or even that a link with innovation exists (Amabile et al. 1996; Sarooghi et al. 2015). A relatively unexplored topic, however, is creative capabilities.

Defined as “the ability, using processes and routines, to generate, select, and integrate new, suitable, useful, and feasible ideas and solutions to improve, change, and renew the organization’s processes and productions, as well as the organization itself” (Parmentier et al. 2017, p. 16), creative capability has its roots in the work of Napier and Nilsson (2006), who regard creativity in terms of dynamic capabilities (Teece 1997).

Sheet (2022) more precisely describes the five dimensions that allow for the development of such capabilities: 1) internal socialization of ideas, 2) creative equipment, 3) external openness, 4) organizational agility and 5) idea management. Nevertheless, despite the interest surrounding creative capabilities from both academic and managerial perspectives, knowledge on the subject remains relatively scarce. It is in this context that this book is written, as well as the research project supported by the Agence nationale de la recherche (ANR) (organizational creative capabilities, OCC). Although the literature and knowledge on creative capabilities remain limited, many works nevertheless enable the study of processes and routines that shape this creative capability (Napier and Nilsson 2006) to understand the way in which it is constructed (Parmentier and Szostak 2016; Merindol and Versailles 2017) or to study it in diverse organizational contexts, such as entrepreneurship (Lerch et al. 2015) or SMEs (Lavoie et al. 2019). If there is one aspect of creative capabilities that is still largely understudied, it is the way in which it develops in a context of openness.

In management sciences, openness often takes shape in the form of open innovation. Introduced by Henry Chesbrough in 2003, for an organization, open innovation consists of relying on knowledge inputs and outputs to accelerate internal innovation for external use (Chesbrough 2003). The literature on open innovation has expanded considerably in recent years, as evidenced by the increasing number of special issues of academic journals on the subject, as well as the proliferation of management systems such as crowdsourcing platforms, innovation with user communities and idea competitions, among others.

Many topics have been examined through the lens of open innovation: collaborations between large companies and SMEs (Usman et al. 2018), the antecedents of open innovation (Kim et al. 2015), open business models (Foss and Saebi 2017), open third places for innovation (Capdevila 2016), etc. However, as mentioned earlier, creative capabilities have been studied very little in the context of openness, even though many current creative approaches involve some degree of openness.

Merindol and Versailles (2017) have begun to explore this question by studying the development of “highly” creative capabilities in a context of openness, specifically within open innovation laboratories. According to the authors, openness contributes to the development of such capabilities by providing access to resources that are not available within the company (external resources) and allowing for a freedom of exploration (in the case studied by the authors, within a limited space). However, while the broader literature suggests that open innovation schemes do indeed foster creativity (Ruiz et al. 2017; Aubouin and Capdevila 2019), many studies also highlight that fostering creativity through open innovation is often challenged by numerous obstacles, such as difficulties in integrating external knowledge, complex coordination, etc. (Yström et al. 2010; Ruiz et al. 2020).

The aim of this book is therefore to take a closer look at the development of creative capabilities in the context of openness. Our goal is to understand how such skills can develop in this context, despite the obstacles identified in the existing literature. Additionally, we aim to connect the concept of creative capabilities to various research subjects, which themselves reflect managerial strategies implemented by organizations in relation to openness and open innovation. Through the chapters and cases presented in this book, we hope to contribute to the advancement of knowledge on the topic of creative capabilities. Our intention is also to provide guidance and consolidate thinking for researchers engaged in the study of creative capabilities, creativity in general, and for those seeking examples and cases to efficiently implement schemes based on creative capabilities. Building on the first book coordinated by Guy Parmentier in this series, this book is part of the ANR OCC project, which brings together a dozen expert researchers who are deeply passionate about this subject. In this second volume on the topic of openness, we have also expanded our collaboration to include research colleagues who are investigating contemporary openness topics, which they have found relevant to connect with creative capabilities. This expansion is akin to exploring previously uncharted research avenues.

This book comprises eight chapters, each of which delves into one or more dimensions of capabilities highlighted by Sheet (2022). Our objective is to analyze what promotes the development of creative capabilities and to illustrate these dimensions across various contexts of openness.

Chapter 1, written by Guy Parmentier, addresses the contribution of multisided platforms to the creative capabilities of organizations. The author describes how these platforms operate, the role of openness, and its impact on creativity and the development of creative capabilities. One of the key contributions of this chapter, apart from the study of multisided platforms, lies in Guy Parmentier’s border approach, which illustrates many dimensions of creative capabilities.

Chapter 2 illustrates the connection between creative capabilities and openness using the example of crowdsourcing. Recognized as one of the major open innovation schemes, crowdsourcing enables organizations to become more creative. To achieve this, the literature has already emphasized the importance of developing absorption skills, but has never linked them to creative capabilities. Émilie Ruiz proposes to do so using the example of the Raidlight company.

Chapter 3 delves deeper into the concept of open business models. Romain Gandia demonstrates how organizational creative capabilities influence business models in various ways. Going beyond the so-called mechanical approach to these capabilities, the author highlights the significance of their agility, contextuality, dynamism and openness. On the one hand, the Ankama company example emphasizes the crucial issue of internal agile organization and the application of creative capability in a longitudinal business model perspective. On the other hand, the Airbnb case serves as a testament to the co-production of creative capabilities in the context of a digital platform business model.

Chapter 4 is unique in that it explores an internal openness mechanism: the liberated company. To this end, Sandra Dubouloz and Caroline Mattelin-Pierrard present a chapter identifying how an organization’s internal openness (such as the opening of internal boundaries, breaking down organizational silos and fostering open-mindedness among managers and employees) can promote creativity and creative capabilities. They base their analysis on the case of the Nicomatic company.

Chapter 5 examines one of the primary aspects of openness: the third place. By presenting cases of several open third places, Aurore Dandoy explores the role of physical spaces in the development of creative capabilities. This chapter extends the existing literature on places, third places and creativity by suggesting that these spaces not only encourage creativity but also demonstrate, through a multi-level analysis, that third places facilitate the development of individual and organizational creative capabilities.

Chapter 6 focuses on a relevant sector: scientific research. Nuria Moratal’s...